A human being in his life belongs to several groups and communities. I personally can be classified into a lot of groups though I am the same person all the time. I am a human so I belong to the living world, I am the part of nature. (Ralph Waldo Emerson employed in his work Nature with the varicoloured life, he wrote:
"Strictly speaking therefore, all that is separate from us, all which Philosophy distinguishes as the NOT ME, that is, both nature and art, all other men and my own body, must be ranked under this name, NATURE.") I am a men, because of my sex I belong to the category "male" not "female". (Mostly these two are spread.) Moreover I live in the world (as all the other people) I am European (as not all the others) and I live in East-Europe (as most of us).
I am a part of my country and I am a part of my nationality. I belong to my town, my street, my family, my friends. But I also belong to another places, to another towns: where my University exists, where my friends are. When I am just walking on the street I am the part of the crowd or emptiness. But first of all I am the part of myself.
Everybody’s got a character reference. This can be higher or lower, it depends on the person, on his personal qualities, education and social background. Everyone has to know to decide what is normal and abnormal behaviour in such cases.Because of the moral value judgement such behaviours are considered as abnormal. For example if somebody would walk on the street without clothes it would be considered as abnormal. Probably the police would catch him and give him some clothes, which is the greatest punishment in the case if that person do not likes clothing. Here is the point where the personal freedom and moral fights a battle. It seems the police do not have enough fantasy in such cases but they do not have to have. The law stands on the side of moral and it is defended by police. Personal freedom is pressed among the borders of ethic. A state do not likes anarchy, politicians think it is better controlled if there is an apparent order.
One has to suit the requirements and expectations in a group he belongs to. We can also see that these expectations are moral expectations. A person has to be respectful and polite to parents, grandparents, relatives, teachers, bosses et cetera. It is rare when a person acts with his parents in a way like with friends in a pub. This behaviour can also be good and bad.
The moral can be various. It is determined by certain groups. In foreign countries somewhere the cultural traditions are more powerful than moral traditions. If I travel for example to Asia or Africa I can notice some phenomena that are unusual, in our area immoral. In their point of view our attitude can be strange. Here we can see the power of culture.
Sometimes one do not notice that he became a member of a group. It is natural because people are sociable. They get into companies, they make contacts and new friendships. If I have a new friend I gradually get to know his friends and drop in to their group. They will have a view about me and they will have expectations too.
I can say that I know quite a lot of people so I belong to many groups. I know subconsciously how to behave in different groups and different people. There is a sequence of importance among the groups. Somewhere in the first place in line are my friends. If I am with friends our behaviour also depends on the place where we are. Our behaviour is more free in a pub or in a concert than in a theatre. It seems that normal behaviour is that what is generally accepted, how people act in a certain place and extremes are considered as abnormal. If in a theatre someone shouts and rushes around and there is no fire, it can condemn as abnormal - except if that person is the actor. If we pick out a well-dressed person from the theatre audience and move him to a punk concert it also could seem abnormal. So the behaviour and the appearance depends on the place and on the group where we are.
From the foregoing appears that the normal behaviour in a certain place is the same that others do. When there is a war a lot of people are fighting ... war is not too moral. If after a football match the fans are vandalizing it is also immoral. From that example we can notice that not in all cases the best behaviour is that others do. I think it is on us, we have to take stock of the situation and we have to think about it: What is normal?
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